Mangroves and seawall employed to defend local infrastructure against sea level rise and coastal erosion in Collingwood Bay, Papua New Guinea. Credit: Mama Graun Conservation Trust Fund

LAE, Papua New Guinea, May 22 2012 (IPS) – Sea level rise near Papua New Guinea, a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) in the southwest Pacific, is estimated at seven millimetres per year, double the global annual average of 2.8-3.6 mm.

In a bottom-up approach to fighting climate change, the indigenous use of mangroves is now leading local and national plans to stem the destruction of land and communities by coastal flooding and erosion.

As global warming melts i…

A nurse attends to an expectant mother at Walgak Primary Health Care Centre in South Sudan’s Jonglei State. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

JUBA, Jul 9 2012 (IPS) – One year after the formation of South Sudan, the country’s women say that independence has not resulted in the positive political, economic and social changes that they had hoped for.

Women activists worry that even after separation from Sudan on Jul. 9, 2011, when South Sudan became the world’s newest country and Africa’s 54th nation, the government has not done enough to improve .

But as people across the country celebrate the first anniversary of independence from Sudan, after a 21-year civ…

Girls at a rural school in Nicaragua. Credit: Oscar Navarrete/IPS

MANAGUA, Aug 22 2012 (IPS) – Carla lost everything when she got pregnant at the age of 13: her first year of secondary school, her family, her boyfriend, and her happiness. She spent a year panhandling on the streets of the Nicaraguan capital before she was taken in by a shelter for young mothers.

Her life fell apart in December 2006, when her mother discovered that she was three months pregnant as a result of being raped by one of her primary school teachers. Her mother gave her a savage beating with a belt and threw her out of the house, saying she couldn’t afford another mouth to feed.

Carla�…

Three in four people with mental illness live in developing countries, where treatment options are often limited or nonexistent. Credit: Photostock/IPS

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Oct 10 2012 (IPS) – About 50 percent of Afghanis over 15 years of age suffer from mental health problems depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. In northern Uganda, nearly every family suffered during the vicious 20-year rebellion during which thousands of children were kidnapped and turned into child soldiers in the Lord s Resistance Army.

The fighting is over but the mental trauma continues.

Globally, close to 450 million people have mental health disorders, with more than 75 percent…

HIV/AIDS has caused a steady increase in the number of orphans in South Africa. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 2012 (IPS) – After weathering the departure of its executive director amidst a misallocation scandal earlier this year, the world s largest funder of programmes to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is poised to announce a new leader Thursday.

The performance-based is a giant in the field of multilateral health financing, channeling 82 percent of the funds for TB, 50 percent for malaria, and 21 percent of the international financing against HIV/AIDS. To date, it has approved 30 billion dollars’ worth of spending.

“They n…

TASHKENT, Jan 2 2013 – Uzbekistan is facing a public health time bomb, experts are warning. Authorities contend they are making gains in the battle to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS, but independent specialists say such claims are built on twisted figures and deceptive methodology.

At a late-November speech to mark World AIDS Day, the director of Uzbekistan’s National AIDS Centre, Nurmat Atabekov, said Tashkent is making progress in its fight against HIV/AIDS and that the number of new infections in the country is falling, local media reported.

In 2011, Atabekov said, Uzbekistan saw an 11-percent decline in the number of new infections compared with the previous year; that followed a 5.5 percent decline in 2010. This year, the country should see another drop. The total…

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 2013 (IPS) – Food safety advocates, environmentalists and health professionals here are engaging in a fervent last-minute campaign to highlight a controversial legislative amendment they say would gut the ability of both the judiciary and the federal government to regulate genetically modified agricultural products.

The U.S. Senate is slated to vote early this week on amendments to a massive, “must pass” bill that would fund the U.S. government’s operations beyond Mar. 27 to the end of this fiscal year. That bill – a piece of stopgap legislation known as a continuing resolution – is so important that leaders in the U.S. Senate had previously suggested that they would not include any potentially controversial amendments.These provisions are giveaways …

YEREVAN, May 9 2013 – A government decree in Armenia that bars pregnant women who are not residents of Yerevan from receiving free childbirth services in the capital is causing discontent in outlying regions.

In a bid to boost population numbers, the state covers the costs for childbirth services in Armenia. Seeking better facilities and medical personnel, pregnant women from the regions often travel to Yerevan to give birth. In 2012, 64 percent of the 70,648 women registered for state-provided childbirth assistance gave birth in Yerevan, according to the National Statistical Service.

The May 1 decree issued by the Ministry of Health was designed to encourage improvements at hospitals in the country’s 10 regions. Under the measure, women will only be able to obtain sta…

Joan Erakit interviews UNFPA Executive Director BABATUNDE OSOTIMEHIN

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 2013 (IPS) – On Thursday, the international community recognises World Population Day, a time of assessment, discussion and projections for the future that necessarily gives great weight to the rights of women and girls and particularly their sexual and reproductive health.

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. Credit: UNFPA

This past week, the Netherlands has been host to the (ICPD) where equality and the rights of every person have been highlighted.

“Women’s rights are human rights,” the executive director of the (UNFPA), Dr. Baba…

Door-to-door spraying in Cuba is an effective means of controlling dengue. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

HAVANA, Aug 22 2013 (IPS) – The spread of the virus that causes dengue fever has created an emergency situation for institutions, governments and scientists in Latin America seeking sustainable solutions for a health problem that could worsen as a result of climate change.

World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics indicate that in the first seven months of 2013 there were nearly 1.4 million reported cases in the region, making this an epidemic year.

In 2012 there were a total of 1.7 million cases, and we do not know yet if the figure will be …